'The Bear' stars talk final season: 'There's more struggle, there's more urgency'

The Bear is taking its last reservations.

All eight episodes of the Emmy-winning drama's fifth and final season are now streaming on Hulu. The season takes place over the course of one day in the titular Chicago restaurant, where everything that could possibly go wrong does — and then some. Adding to the pressure is the threat of imminent closure by The Bear's chief investor, Olivier Platt's Uncle Jimmy.

"I think it makes so much sense for everybody to throw themselves into this last service, to be existing with these characters in real time. ... It amps everything up, you know?" Jeremy Allen White, who plays Carmy Berzatto, told ABC Audio.

"There's more struggle, there's more urgency, time is important, stakes rise, and so yeah, I thought structuring the last season this way was just a great, great idea, and ended up being really effective."

The season also picks up right after Carmy's season 4 finale decision to leave The Bear in the hands of Sydney, Natalie and Richie. That means Ayo Edebiri [EYE-oh eh-deh-BEE-ree]'s Sydney finds herself in charge in the most stressful of circumstances, before finally breaking down. 

"It's a lot to get to do inside and have it build," she told ABC Audio. "And so when it does come out in those physical moments, that's always really fun for me. I feel like my body is, like, Laffy Taffy."

As for Ebon [EH-ben] Moss-Bachrach's front-of-house manager Richie, he refuses to give up and goes overboard in trying to motivate the staff to keep going.

"It is a very aggressive optimism, maybe, I would say," he laughs. "It feels nice to play someone who has that generosity, who wants to take care of everyone." 

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